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I had a little tune I dreamt up for an escape scene early on in the script that was bouncing around in my head when I woke up a few days ago and I just couldn’t seem to shake it. I thought to myself “Maybe this is something good, something that would work,” so I rang up Tim, my friend and our musical composer, to see if I could swing by his place and talk to him about it. He said to come on by, so two days ago I went over to see him and effectively hummed to him to the best of my ability what it was that I was “hearing” in my mind.

It was both awkward and slightly embarrassing, but in a goofy kind of a way. You know when you can hear a song so clearly in your mind and then you go to sing or hum it and you just can’t focus in on it at all no matter how hard you try? Your mouth is making a sound, but whatever that sound is, it doesn’t match up with what you’re hearing in your head? Well, I was struggling against that, and in the face of Tim clearly trying to intently listen to specifically what sounds I was making as I feebly fought to extract the tune from my head well enough for him to understand what I was hearing.

Cortana proves that even in the distant future, they celebrate what happened a long time ago.

I, like many people, have a routine.

Step #1 is to wake up. If I complete Step #1, no matter what, my day is going better than if I didn’t. After that, I blindly eject my arm out of bed and start jabbing at the air to find my phone, which sits on my nightstand.

Upon completion of that task, I begin by checking my email accounts for anything of interest or urgency and then Cortana gives me my daily custom feed of various local, nation, global, and video game news. I like to find out if we’ve attacked someone or been attacked yet before I get out of bed, because depending on that answer I may or may not do it.

And yes, I use Cortana, that’s because I have a Windows Mobile device. Yes, I use a Windows Mobile device. It just works so much better than the other two, app-gap be damned. Now, now. No teasing. That leads to the Dark Side. 😉

Anyways, today I had a great greeting from “her” as I was waking up. After unlocking my phone, Cortana offered up the best wake-up message I think she’s done yet; and that includes the “Happy Birthday!” she said to me just last weekend!

Check out how she said “Good Morning” to me today. She shifted from her usual circular, or, dare I say it, “Halo” icon and morphed into the face of a very familiar Jedi Master. What could be a better way to start your day with a smile then that? Can one truly love an inanimate object? I think quite possibly yes, as there’s always another reason why I love my phone. 🙂

Best headline for Cortana to wake me up to on my Windows Mobile phone.

But she wasn’t done! She had one last notification before I was forced to either start my day or waste time talking to my phone’s AI about how fast Han Solo made the Kessel Run.

Ah, May the 4th. The geekiest “holiday” fandom has. ^_^

But does it really belong to fandom? Let’s take a little bit of a look into where May the 4th supposedly originated, what it means to us here today, as well as ways you can celebrate it here in Massachusetts.

This post isn’t directly related to the Episode IX Radio Drama Project, but it’s something I thought our audience would enjoy the multiple layers of irony of nevertheless.

Last night I was playing Star Wars: Battlefront II on the PlayStation 4, as I’m wont to do, and as I was enjoying a round of my favorite mode, Heroes vs. Villains, I unlocked the trophy “Choose Your Path”. If you’re not familiar with the game, or this specific reward, a player receives this trophy when they accomplish the following: “While being marked, defeat 50 enemies in Heroes Vs Villains.” Being marked refers to the player essentially being “it”, the target that the other team will be after.

At the time, I was running around as Han Solo in his unlockable Hoth “Appearance” (which I imagine must’ve made the man quite a bit warm under all that insulation in the jungles of Yavin), when I was rewarded the “Choose Your Path” trophy for eliminating none other than Kylo Ren who was being controlled by the unseen force of a player whose name starts with “Starkiller”. Choose your path, indeed! I found it all very ominous.

One of my favorite things when I unlock a trophy is when the system actually records a *good* screenshot of the moment I unlock and am rewarded said trophy. I find the timing on this to often be quite hit or miss, no pun intended; but this time it worked out beautifully and I’m happy to share the moment with you all.

Han Solo takes an ironic shot and gets a trophy for it.

That’s two I owed you, junior. One for Kylo, and one for Starkiller. 😉

It might be Friday the 13th, but over the past 48 hours EpisodeIX.org has been going through the major changes we had in store for it from the beginning, finally bringing it inline with where we wanted it to be. This includes unveiling our logo! Read on to learn more about it, and what we’ve been up to.

As hard as it is to believe, Boston’s PAX East 2018 was just last week! It feels both like we just left and like it was ages ago. Spending a few days immersed in the sights, sounds, and pure zaniness that is PAX will do that to a person. If you attended this or any previous year’s PAX, I’m sure you know what we’re talking about.

This year, however, “Han Solo” himself was on hand for part of the event to walk the floor, meet the people, and spread the word about EpisodeIX.org to the masses. If you were at PAX East this year, let us know if you ran into Han! As you can see below, there was a touch-and-go moment between him and none other than Buzz Lightyear, but in the end, it ended up OK for both of them and they just went after cell phone cameras instead. Phew! A noble cause indeed.

Forget Greedo, the real duel is between Han Solo and Buzz Lightyear!

Han Solo and Buzz Lightyear decided they work better together and take on the tyranny of cell phone cameras.

Thanks to everyone at PAX East 2018 for all the kind words, support, and encouragement we received!

We’re glad to see you found our little, incredibly unfinished, website! Although the site isn’t really ready to go yet, we sure are!

But “ready to go with what?,” you ask. The short answer – an alternative take on what a Star Wars Episode IX could be, as told through an audio format with only storyboards being used for the visuals. Like a narrated picture book from a long time ago.

This is a not-for-profit project being done to coincide with the 2019 Extra-Life event which raises donations for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll come along on this journey with us.

We’re excited to show and tell you more, but we’ve got more work to do right now, including on this nascent website! For now, if you’d like to find out more, please sign up for our newsletter, the Commlink, below. And if you are a digital or physical media artist and would like to volunteer your skills, we would love to have you on-board! Just make a note of that in the “How did you hear about us” field and we’ll get back in touch with you.

Thanks again everyone for your interest, and may the Force be with you!